Tuesday, July 01, 2014

Overlooked Movies: Reign of Fire

Here's another one that I like that hardly anyone else does. Sure, it doesn't make a lot of sense, but it has dragons, so who cares? How many post-apocalyptic movies where the apocalypse is brought about by dragons do you ever get to see? One. And this is it.Besides, it has Christian Bale and Matthew McConaughey as the leads. Dragons, Bale, McConaughey, post-apocalyptic England -- shut up and take my money!See, what happened was that when Bale was a little kid, a construction crew in London woke up a hibernating dragon. It seems that the dragons were what wiped out the dinosaurs, and with nothing left to feed on, the dragons went into hibernation, just waiting for some more protein to come along. After the dragon wakes up, we jump forward 20 years. Humanity as just about been wiped out, but small groups are hanging on. Bale leads one of the groups, and a dragon has just wiped out their crops when up rides Matthew McConaughey and his posse, looking like fugitives from a Road Warrior movie. Matt and Chris clash over how to proceed, and a lot of people die. After that, Matt goes after the male dragon. It seems there's only one, and after he dies, it's all over for the dragons. Matt knows the secret to the dragons' vulnerability, and Chris knows where the lair is, having been there when it was uncovered. There's some more dragon fighting and [SPOILER ALERT] not everyone survives, but the dragon is killed [END SPOILER ALERT]. If you like dragons, as who doesn't, you can't go wrong here. Kidding aside, Bale and McConaughey both give strong performances, and you're not going to see McConaughey bald too often. Don't pass up your chance.

7 comments:

You won't see MMc bald much yet, anyway, notes the bald-pated but buzzed sides man (what's left is just pleasantly soft enough to not shave it, particularly with the unfortunate legacy of skinheadism).

This is another film I keep landing on fifteen minutes in, and keep meaning to see in its entirety...